Kim James 
Violating the recommendations prescribed for streamlining parliamentary committee look at tours and cutting down prices, individuals of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have spent crores of taxpayers money on common outstation excursions, well-known shows information received through an RTI question filed by The Wire. As in keeping with tips, parliamentarians need to live at authorities’ visitor homes or resorts in the parliamentary committee looking at tours. Only underneath special situations can lodging be arranged at personal motels. However, it has come to mind that the MPs no longer simplest booked the use of an’s top-rated and costliest inns, but also incurred huge fees on food and transportation at some point of their stay.
The Wire sought records from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats concerning the expenditure on the parliamentary committee, looking at tours and information of folks who undertook the excursions between 2013 and 2018. The statistics reveal that greater than Rs 15 crore has been spent all through 115. Have a look at tours in that duration. In violation of the RTI Act but, the Lok Sabha secretariat refused to offer the entire information. The Wire has accessed respectable files, including resort bills, meals payments, and travel bills of study excursions, which display that the extravagant spending consists of trips on non-public cruises.
For example, the parliamentary committee on industries headed by JD(U) MP Ram Chandra Prasad Singh spent extra than Rs 1.83 crores on fivetoa look at tours during 2016-17. That is, on a mean, the committee spent Rs 37 lakh on every excursion. Similarly, a branch-associated parliamentary status committee on health and circle of relatives welfare headed by Samajwadi Party MP Ramgopal Yadav undertook a study excursion to Coimbatore, Ooty, and Bengaluru from June 8, 2015, to June 15. The committee spent Rs 24.85 lakh in only 5 days.
During the tour, the MPs stayed inexpensive lodges, including Highland Hotel in Ooty, Oberoi in Bengaluru, and Aloft Hotel in Coimbatore. A -day stay in the Highland Hotel fee Rs 4.50 lakh, of which Rs 3.56 lakh was room expenses, at the same time as Rs 21,853 have been spent on meals. In Bengaluru, the stay at the Oberoi Hotel raised a bill of Rs 12.05 lakh, inclusive of room expenses and food. One of the committee members, section officer C.R. Srinivas (touch officer of MP Ratna Dey Nag), spent Rs 3.78 lakh in a single day.
A sizeable amount turned into also spent on transportation. The committee spent Rs 5.50 lakh on conveyance between June 7, 2015, and June 12. This fee becomes made to Travel Line, a non-public organization placed in Delhi’s Ashram place. Information obtained by using The Wire also exhibits that a big amount was spent on the acquisition of bouquets, whilst a sum of Rs 14, a hundred seventy-five changed into spent on jute objects.
Guidelines issued in 2005 for the parliamentary committee look at excursions say an excursion ought to be simplest undertaken if it is indispensable. The committee contributors and accompanying officers have to be accommodated in authorities’ guest houses, including PSU, MLA Hostels, and Circuit Houses. Where a government visitor home is not to be had, government-owned lodges have to be booked. If even government-owned inns are unavailable, arrangements may be made in the right hotels. As in step with the pointers, preparations for the committee shall be dignified but shall no longer be ostentatious and should no longer leave room for adverse grievance from the media and public.
On February 2, 2016, the standing committee on fitness and circle of relatives welfare visited the Guru Govind Singh Tricentenary Medical College in Gurgaon and Vardhman Mahavir College in New Delhi for Rs 1.25 lakh. Rs 22,295 became paid to Glorious India Travel, an organization primarily based in Chanakyapuri in Delhi. At the same time as Rs ninety-two,646 turned into paid to Sultanpur’s Rosy Pelican Resort for accommodation.
Similarly, a committee for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes paid Rs eleven,800 to JMD travel, an organization based totally in Delhi’s Ambedkar Nagar, for traveling to the AIIMS on September 6, 2016. The committee is headed by way of BJP MP from Ahmedabad West Kirit Premjibhai Solanki. He becomes accompanied by way of 22 other MPs on tour. The guidelines require members and officials to be supplied with the delivery facility at some point of the excursion. Transport shall also be provided to drop and acquire the participants at airports or railway stations. They propose that one automobile is enough for 2 members/officials and that air-conditioned automobiles may be arranged while important.
However, facts acquired under the RTI famous that massive sums were spent on offering delivery facilities to participants and officials. The parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare paid greater than Rs 20 lakh to Travel Line for three study excursions to Coimbatore, Ooty, Mysore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Guwahati. The tours have been for a period of 20 days. In common, more than 20 humans, together with MPs and officials, went on each tour.
